Transplanted regulatory T cells may help in controlling inflammatory diseases

With a $2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), a team of researchers - including Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute professor Juergen Hahn - will investigate the potential of using transplanted regulatory T cells (Tregs) to reduce inflammation in diseases like inflammatory bowel disease, which currently has no known viable treatment options.

"The challenge is that the transplanted cells are not very 'stable' and may end up contributing to inflammation rather than combating inflammation," said Hahn, professor and head of the Department of Biomedical Engineering. "We propose to condition the regulatory T cells by exposing them to various conditions prior to transplantation such that their stability is increased, and we expect that this will make them more potent in combating inflammation. Our goal is to transplant conditioned Tregs into a host for therapeutic inhibition of inflammation."

The project will combine computational research at Rensselaer with research in vitro and in vivo at two Texas A&M University research laboratories. The team will create a computational model able to predict Tregs induction, function, and stability. That model will be used to develop treatment regimens that use transplanted Tregs to inhibit inflammation, providing new treatment options for a variety of diseases characterized by excessive inflammation.

"Modeling and Analysis of the Role of Microbiota Metabolites in T-Cell Differentiation" is supported by a five-year grant from the NIH National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.